Newest Cassette
by Diamonds and Bones
Summary: Soundwave has just acquired a new cassette. Basically a story of Soundwave being the best Cybertronian parent ever! :P
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, Soundwave, I found someone who wants to meet you," said Rumble over the comm.

Soundwave jerked up from his seat, mildly surprised and paused in typing his report to Megatron. Now with the so called Golden Age of the Decepticons taking advent, more of Megatron's soldiers were enjoying their newfound free time. Soundwave knew his cassettes wanted to get him out of the command room and 'live a life' as Rumble so fondly said, but his work took priority. As a result of his workaholic nature, he could hardly believe anyone would want to willingly meet him.

"Acknowledged," Soundwave commed, setting down the datapad and signaling a red seeker drone to fill in his spot. He didn't have a shift right now, so it wouldn't be unusual for him to leave his post.

He stood up from his seat in the command room and walked toward Rumble's direction. His small cassette had pinged him the directions, but Rumble's excited pulses through their bond would've pinpointed his location just as well. _Rumble must be desperate,_ mused Soundwave. He knew his cassettes were determined for him to stop working so much, but finding a mech to distract him was laughable.

No one wanted to be with Soundwave due to his uncanny ability to blackmail any soldier and, in return, Soundwave found most Decepticons downright unbearable to be with...unless his cassettes.

Soundwave traveled down the grey hallways wondering who it could be. His cassette wanted it to be a surprise and Rumble's excited pulses over the bond had already spiked the curiosity of his other four cassettes.

"I'm outside in the desert," Rumble commed back, impatiently.

"Directions received," Soundwave stated before Rumble interrupted.

"And bring a towel and some medical supplies it looks like he might be injured."

Well, that stopped him. Injured? The Autobots, although their ranks were nonexistent, might've started fighting back. "Decepticon or Autobot?" inquired Soundwave. "Medic Hook qualified in this area-"

"Don't you dare call him over here," hissed back Rumble, anger filling his voice, before he pinged back a pulse of sorrow. "Trust me, OK. There are no Autobrats here. It's the Golden Age for 'Cons, boss."

Soundwave sighed, internally, before he punched the keys to open the door to head outside. He already had a medical kit in his subspace for Rumble and Frenzy related injuries and according to reports Autobots had not been seen in America for months. The latest sightings being the cold tundras of Russia and report of Autobot Jazz roaming Antarctica.

Soundwave turned on his jets and flew over the Nevada desert impatient to see what the fuss was about. He really hoped it was worth the surprise, however his conclusion that it would be a potential companion was highly improbable. Rumble was most likely going to prank him, however, the excited pulses his cassette transmitted through the bond told him otherwise.

It took him fifteen minutes to arrive to the destination. It was an abandoned ghost town. Wooden houses were rotting and there was a huge rusted, barbed wire metal fence around it that circled the town for approximately two miles, preventing people from entering. Judging from the sign that stood next to the fence this ghost town had recently been used as an attraction for visitors before it had closed down. Soundwave scanned his surroundings and the only spark beat he detected was Rumble's-

"Over here, boss," yelled Rumble, who was running toward him. The fence bended around a corner, making it impossible to see with the bare optics. The purple cassette grabbed his leg and manually started to drag him to the destination. They were walking around the fenced in area, however, they did not go into the town, piquing Soundwave's curiosity. Rumble obviously did not want to show him the ghost town, which would've been strange behavior from his cassette as he hated sightseeing...unless he was destroying it.

"Rumble: legs operational. Desist: unnecessary actions-" Soundwave argued annoyed with Rumble's rushing before Soundwave's scanners pinged, picking up something. It was a sparkbeat...but not just any sparkbeat, a cassette's. He grabbed Rumble, ignoring the annoyed, 'let me down!' and ran toward the source, his carrier instincts on full blast. It was weak, the cassette probably dying, so he needed to hurry. They ran around the bend of the fenced in area, and Soundwave would've almost run past it, had it not been for Rumble who practically jumped out of his hands, pointing to something in the fence.

"Right there!" yelped Rumble, pointing to a small cassette trapped in the barb wired fence. Soundwave stopped in his tracks and approached it...it was tiny, to say the least. Half the size of Rumble and was barely moving.

It was a small purple and black cassette and was hanging upside down from the fence. It's little legs were clutching the barbed wire desperately and energon was oozing out. Soundwave realized why it was doing this when he noticed that it's left purple wing was trapped in the barbed wire fence, some of the barbs puncturing the thin metal. The other wing was wrapped around it's body and face.

 _A bat cassette,_ Soundwave thought as he stared in amazement. He had thought that they had gone extinct. He hoped it wasn't too late, it would be incredible to include the bat cassette to his collection as he never had one designed especially for the night cycle.

"Wow," said Rumble. "He looks like he got worse in like the five seconds I left. Before he was screeching like some devil and trying to bite me."

Soundwave approached it cautiously, sending out a field of comfort and the bat barely budged, only flapping it's wings a little. He could tell that this cassette had not been claimed and had not joined a side yet due to it's lack of insignia. Soundwave assumed that it was from one of the neutral ships that had landed on Earth, however, neutrals were less seen than autobots.

Soundwave grabbed his medical box from his subspace and set it to the ground. The current operation was to untangle the tiny cassette's wing from the fence. All he'd have to do would be to unwrap the wires around it's wing, but his spark clenched when he saw the damage inflicted on the appendage. The wounds would most likely not allow the cassette to fly or transform for months. It was a good thing Hook was not called. The cruel doctor would've killed the cassette instead and experimented on it.

It was one of the many reasons why Soundwave was the only one who repaired his cassettes, not the Constructicons.

He reached for the tangled wing cautiously, the tiny bat cassette not having moved his other wing from its face and had just touched the thin, energon stained metal before, without warning, the tiny cassette slapped him with the other wing and started to screech. Soundwave winced and had to lower his audials, as he wondered how someone so small could be so loud. His raptor cassettes, Buzzsaw and Laserbeak, sounded like a soothing orchestra compared to this hellion.

Wind slapped his face as the once motionless bat cassette tried to fly away, his one wing flapping desperately as it's tiny claws tried to push Soundwave's hands off the other. Soundwave grabbed the tiny bat, ignoring the damage messages as the cassette bit into his hand. He had already suffered through Ravage and both of his raptor cassettes' bites when he was taming them, so this was expected. What was unexpected was when he received energon loss warnings as the bat started to suck the wound, hungrily, alternating from feeding to fighting. He knew about bat cassettes enough to know that this was common. It was why many cassette rack models rarely wanted a bat cassette.

However, Soundwave was superior.

"Need some help, boss?" yelped Rumble, his loyalty programs yelling at him to protect his master, but the contradicting calmness emotions floating from Soundwave's bond to his cassettes stopped him from attacking the tiny cassette.

"Negative," Soundwave replied. "Cassette healthy."

He'd much rather have a feisty cassette, than a half dead cassette and if the tiny bat was feeding off of him, regaining the energon he lost, then so be it.

Ignoring the damage the tiny bat was inflicting on his hand and the waves of terror the tiny cassette's field was transmitting, Soundwave simply, with his other hand, began to tug on the wire's trapping its wings. But the bat's movements were damaging his wings more, the joints stressed out and bleeding profusely.

"Rumble assist," he ordered. "Operation immobilization."

"You got it, boss!" yipped the tiny cassette, walking over to Soundwave's side and grabbing the bat's body. The tiny cassette tried to move it's head, but Soundwave's hand gripped the cassette tighter, not allowing the tiny cassette's teeth to slip out of his servo. He'd much rather have it be feeding off of him, although as strange as it was since none of his cassettes had any such protocols, than to be attacking Rumble.

He hoped this tiny cassette wasn't like Scorponok, the drone Blackout had. It attached to his master's back and could only fuel on its master's processed energon. But he gathered that that wasn't the case. Drones didn't last long without their masters once they died, and this tiny cassette appeared to have been on its own for months, judging from the dirt the bat had accumulated.

He just hoped this wouldn't become a habit for the tiny cassette, nor did he want any of his other cassettes to realize what their new brother was capable of.

After five minutes, he had untangled the wires, his hand bleeding slightly. The tiny bat cassette had stopped sucking his energon, his tanks hopefully full, and was only screaming behind his hand. It tried to move, but the combination of Rumble and Soundwave's hands effectively immobilized it, barely allowing the bat to move a strut. It was pathetic how weak it was, but Soundwave did admire its tenacity.

The cassette went to flap his now free wing away, before Soundwave grabbed it preventing movement, causing the bat to shriek even louder. The wing was bending at a weird angle, the joint most likely dislocated, and purple energon was seeping out. He grabbed the cauterizer from his first aid kit and went to cauterize the broken energon lines. The bat screeched in pain, to the point that Soundwave thought it's tiny voice box would explode, and his carrier protocols screamed at him to comfort the cassette.

However, he needed to complete this operation immediately or the tiny cassette might face deactivation. Rumble, must've received the message though, because he immediately started stroking the now sobbing cassette, its tiny body shuddering in fear. It was transmitting waves of anxiety and terror and Soundwave feared it would shut down from stress. He had to work quickly.

Once the wounds were cauterized, he rubbed the wings, trying to ease the pain and to transmit his sorrow. He then grabbed a metallic mesh and wrapped it, gently, around the wing. The bat now started to tremble, giving up its feeble attempts to escape as Soundwave quickly wrapped the mesh around it's wing, doing the job with both hands, even though his bitten hand was screaming at him in anger. By this point, the tiny bat had been lowered from the fence and was now shaking in the cassette racks arms. Rumble was at his side, ready to help, and Soundwave had strategically placed the cassette close to his spark, rubbing the cassette's back, hoping that this position would calm it done.

It slightly did as it only was shaking in his arms and whimpering, ducking its tiny head numbly into Soundwave's glassed chest as it's tiny pounding spark resonated against Soundwave's calm, even paced one. Strangely Soundwave noticed, the tiny cassette's taloned legs had an affinity to holding onto any part of his body and it's legs scrambled against his chassis, until it settled on a firm death grip on the frame of Soundwave's glass compartment.

Once he had finished bandaging the wing, he spread his calm field out even more, this having a greater effect to the cassette, who confusedly leaned into his touch, probably so scared and disoriented that it'd do anything for comfort.

Soundwave inspected his work. He made it impossible for the bat cassette to flap his wing, the wing now just sticking out comically. The other wing, however was bunched together to it's side...Soundwave was quite curious how cassette bat wings worked. His raptor's wings certainly could not wrap themselves around their body.

But for now, he just petted the bat trying to calm it down and rocking it back and forth like a sparkling. Unfortunately it had a limited vocalizer like his raptors and Ravage, so he wouldn't be able to understand him unless they formed a symbiotic connection. He had no doubt that this tiny cassette would submit to him. It was weak, young, and injured. Soundwave would provide him with fuel, comfort, and protection. This would be an easy convert to his collection, unlike Ravage who refused to form a symbiotic bond to Soundwave until he had held him captive for twenty vorns.

"He's young, right?" asked Rumble, looking at his new brother. He was sitting on the ground, no longer concerned with the tiny cassette who had fallen asleep on Soundwave's chest, his breathing now slow and even and his spark beat, to Soundwave's amusement, copying the cassette rack's own. The tiny bat's systems must've been so overworked that it shut down as the bat was barely moving, only it's big pinty ears twitching ever so often.

Soundwave petted the bat's head, wiping away the dirt in the process. The cassette's previous living conditions must've been deplorable. The bat cassette was obviously malnourished and it must've been alone for a long time because it was touch starved. Thankfully, the bat's little feast on Soundwave's fuel line had brought back more of its purple-black color. Soundwave kept petting it, shifting him closer to his spark as he nodded.

"Affirmative," Soundwave said. "Newly sparked-"

"Wait, really, that young. Like ya think a year old!" gasped Rumble. He threw back his head and groaned. "I am not going to be changing his diapers.

Soundwave ignored the comment, most likely some human reference. "Rumble, will treat brother well. Hasn't been with host: for a while. Feral: improbable, but will be scared."

Rumble shivered at feral. Feral cassettes were awful. If a cassette couldn't sync up with their master then they'd turn crazy, some even turning into spark eaters in their desperate attempt to recreate the spark bond a cassette felt when they synced up with their masters when they were in the rack.

"Uh, well, it's a baby. Big deal. Not like it can hurt me-"

Soundwave glared at him and Rumble held up his hands. "Fine, fine, I'll submit… don't think Ravage will like it though. He tried to bury me when I was created."

Ah, Ravage. His first cassette and a stray. He was the only one who was feral when Soundwave had captured him and it had taken him vorns to domesticate him into the loyal and content panther cassette he was today. The rest of his cassettes had been created when his spark had split and had therefore been no problem to raise. Ravage, however, always had this rebellious streak, yet, he hoped that living for two centuries would end what was left of Ravage's feral behavior.

"Ravage, not a problem. Will submit and accept...Ratbat."

"Ratbat, you say," said Rumble. "Like the fallen senator. Nice job naming him. Do you think he'd mind?"

"Negative," Soundwave said before walking back to the base. With his wing broken like that, it would take months before Ratbat could transform into cassette mode and link up to his new master. However, Soundwave wasn't worried. Ratbat would not become feral as long as he had close proximity to Soundwave and his cassettes. "Ratbat mine. Previous host, inferior." His visor flashed. "Soundwave superior."


	2. Chapter 2

All in all, it was a good day.

With the warm tiny, new cassette curled next to him and sleeping soundly, Soundwave reclined in the berth, energon in hand and ready to read Megatron's latest report. That is until the door slammed open, almost causing a table to fall over.

"I tried to stop him!" yelled Rumble as the mech under discussion growled threateningly. Rage emitted through the bond, as Ravage's sharp talons ripped against the metal floor in anger. Soundwave, use to Ravage's outbursts kept a calm and neutral field and spark pace. Ratbat whimpered in his arms, his ears twitching and Soundwave hoped that Ravage's tantrum would be quick.

 _YOU BROUGHT ANOTHER ONE!_ Screeched Ravage through the bond, his body contorting in anger. Soundwave winced in pain, his poor audials already suffering enough abuse from Ratbat.

"Stand down, Ravage. Ratbat: brother-"

 _He is not my brother, but a parasite!_ Ravage pointed a sharp claw to Soundwave's hand. _He hurt you! Allow me to return the favor._ Ravage mentally supplied Soundwave a picture of him tearing Ratbat's wings apart and Soundwave immediately deleted that, hoping it'd never see the light of day again. Ravage, who was for a long time, the only cassette in his rack, had grown possessive of the blue mech especially when other cassettes came in, so this was not unusual.

Soundwave didn't even move, but turned his head to the side. He smirked when he heard Ravage's frustrated roar. Well, at least he had effectively broken Ravage's habit of pouncing on him when he was angry. Noise could always be ignored, scratch marks, however, were not that easy.

Ravage paced fuming and growling something, however, Soundwave ignored the bond and muted his audials, hearing nothing.

"Ravage: behave or leave. Oldest cassette," Soundwave stated, forcing Ratbat's head closer to his glass case just to prove his point. "Set better example."

Ravage rolled his eyes and Soundwave unmuted the bond to see how he'd react.

 _Example, Soundwave_? Ravage groaned in exasperation. _That cassette is a deranged animal. Stupid and weak. He was trapped in a metal fence and is smaller than Rumble-_

"Hey!" yelled Rumble, pointing at the black panther. "I am not that small."

Ravage just shoved him to the side and stalked closer to Soundwave. Soundwave watched him warily, but didn't move his position, maintaining a dominant posture. Although it would be unnoticeable to another mech's optic, Soundwave saw Ravage's ear twitch signifying discomfort. Ravage was used to people cowering when he stalked them, not calmness.

Soundwave stroked Ratbat's head, just to further enrage Ravage and nuzzled into the bat. "Ratbat, not deranged," Soundwave stated, amusement tingling the bond, infuriating Ravage even more. Sometimes Soundwave could not believe how easy it was to trigger his eldest. Soundwave moved his hand to Ratbat's mouth and Ravage's eyes widened in fear.

"Not biting," Soundwave pointed out, nuzzling his fingers dangerously close to the half open, fully fanged mouth. Instead, Ratbat nuzzled into him and to his surprise licked his fingers. This pleased Soundwave greatly and his field spread even more as he stroked the bat's tiny cheek. Of course, this was expected since he had, unknown to Ravage dipped his fingers in cool energon beforehand.

Ravage growled, more so to repair his slowly dwindling case, and Rumble fell over, laughing.

"Oh Primus," Rumble gasped. "I gotta call in Frenzy. Ravage is getting destroyed."

Ravage faked an attack on Rumble, causing the bot to fall over in fear of getting pounced on, before Ravage licked his claws pleased with the result.

Soundwave rolled his optics as Rumble yelled at his brother as he petted the small bat.

 _Well, he's injured,_ Ravage said, ignoring his brother. _Will he be able to fly? Do not expect me to nurse him._

"Ravage's services: unnecessary. Lack of dexterity, lack of medical skill knowledge-"

Ravage flipped his head back, annoyed. _You made your point! Just stop!_

Soundwave leaned back. "Ravage has difficulty understanding directions."

Ravage's eyes flashed, his teeth gnashing, before he calmed down when he saw that Soundwave didn't even move a strut. _Well you know what, Soundwave. He's yours I won't interfere at all. I won't bury him or whatever, but I will NOT like him. He's ugly._

Soundwave's hand dropped confused with the confession and some of it leaked through the bond, before he clamped down on it. Ravage, finally satisfied that he got a reaction, strutted out, pleased with himself.

Sounwave stared as the black feline slipped out of the room, trampling Rumble in the process, until he disappeared into the hallway. Well, this was good news indeed. If Ravage didn't interfere, he'd might finally have to stop explaining why his cassettes were scratched up, buried, or almost eaten by their brother. For once, one of his cassettes wouldn't have nightmares of their demonic sibling.

Soundwave leaned into the berth in relief. Finally, Ravage was learning, with just a little more tweaks to the feline, he'd be perfect. Soundwave patted the bat and Rumble got up, before he was tackled by a red cassette. Rumble hit the floor hard as the red cassette pounced on him.

"Frenzy, get off of me!" Rumble growled, before Frenzy accidently slapped him as he stumbled off of his twin.

Frenzy once he get off, held his stomach, gasping for air. "Boss… where is he…is he still alive. I just saw Ravage walk out with a pleased expression-"

"Ratbat: functional," Soundwave stated, moving his arms to reveal the tiny bat that had surprisingly been able to sleep through all of the ruckus. The cassette must've been exhausted because all he did was twitch his tiny nose and snuggle closer to Soundwave's frame, as if he didn't like the light.

Frenzy fell to his knees and the bond screamed of exasperation. "Another avion cassette? Why can't you find a cute bipedal one-preferably femme," pointed out Frenzy, nodding his head toward Soundwave.

Frenzy did a full circle, half sparkedly helping up his twin to standing. "...Well, at least he's cute."

He ran toward Soundwave, and the blue mech had no time to react before Frenzy had landed on Soundwave's lap, snuggling into the blue mech. _Of course,_ thought Soundwave. _Frenzy just wanted to suck up the comfort field Soundwave was emitting._ Soundwave only did it when a cassette was distressed. However, the blue mech did notice that Frenzy refused to touch Ratbat. This needed to be rectified. Ratbat needed as much contact as possible to create a superior stable bond once Ratbat was well enough to sync up to the mech.

With one blue hand, Soundwave pushed Frenzy closer to the bat, ignoring the startled yelp, until Frenzy picking up on the bond, stopped struggling and grudgingly cuddled up to their new brother. Soundwave stared at Rumble, who almost happily, after all the abuse he had received crawled up their carrier and shoved himself in between Ratbat and Soundwave's glass frame.

Soundwave finally leaned back as he felt all three sparks eventually beat as one. He knew that his avion twins would come in two groons, after they finished scouting for energon, but he was curious to know their reactions. Frenzy suddenly yelped when he was engulfed in Ratbat's wings, disappearing under the purple wing, before pausing when their newest brother curled closer to him.

Yes, this had been a good day.

 _Please let it be a girl, please let it be a-_

 _Sorry Lasterbeak, but it's a boy!_

Lasberbeak almost fell off of her perch, which was the semi open door as she stared in exasperation at her twin brother who had as soon as entered the room flown over to their newest member. He had even roughly pushed aside Rumble and Frenzy who, only half awake, had swatted their older brother before snuggling into their carrier, to see the bat cassette.

 _It's ugly,_ sniffed Buzzsaw before he flew off to sit on top of a bookshelf of datapads. Laserbeak who had hid her head in her wing, mourning the fact that she would not have a sister, perked up before she flew to Soundwave's shoulder and with one claw moved the bat so that she could see his face.

 _Well, I think he's cute._

 _He's ugly and I'm older so I win._

Laserbeak flapped her wings in exasperation. _Just by one minute!_ She pointed out in annoyance.

Soundwave, however, ignored their argument and stared at his avion twins, noticing their dim lighted optics. The sun had gone down hours ago. Concluding that his cassettes required much needed recharge, he, with one hand motioned Buzzsaw and Laserbeak over to him. Buzzsaw went to transform to cassette mode, before Soundwave shook his head.

"Ratbat: requires stabilization. Solution: closer proximity to Ratbat necessary." Laserbeak, as obedient as ever and who prefered to sleep outside of Soundwave hopped right into her master's lap, while Buzzsaw grudgingly flew over putting as much distance to the newest cassette as possible.

Soundwave who hated disobedience, forcefully moved Buzzsaw to their newest member, ignoring the simpering hate Buzzsaw transmitted through the bond. He leaned back, curling around his sleeping cassettes and powered down his optics.

This was nice, he thought. Staring at his sleeping creations...and newest acquisition. What would be better would be for Ravage to be in the pile, too, curling around the cassettes on the other side, but he would deal with his feisty panther later. Soundwave refused to recharge until he felt all four cassettes sparkbeats slow down, until they were nearly identical. He pulled Ratbat closer and powered down.


End file.
